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Luke Sheahan, one of FIRE’s summer interns from 2005, has bravely taken the fight for free speech back to school with him. Sheahan is the publisher and executive editor of The Liberty, a student publication at Oregon State University. In October, a distribution bin for The Liberty was stolen from its location near the OSU bookstore. Sheahan quickly spoke out about the incident to the press and called upon OSU President Edward J. Ray to condemn the theft and reiterate the importance of press freedom. Sheahan stated: “I know that President Ray is committed to intellectual diversity and that he won’t allow this heckler’s veto to stand. Freedom of the press is sacred and I am confident that President Ray will publicly condemn this action and protect our freedom from these vigilantes.” You can read more about the incident here.

FIRE believes deeply in Justice Brandeis’ famous statement that “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Kudos to Luke Sheahan for shining sunlight on newspaper theft, an all-too-common form of press censorship that often goes unpunished on college campuses.